Patch 5.2 - Isle of Thunder Update
Isle of Thunder goes over to a new stage tomorrow, so let's take a look at the current stage. Upon completing the The Assault on Zeb'tula (Video) or The Assault on Shaol'mara, you have established a small base on the island. You can find Lor'themar Theron, Jaina, Vereesa Windrunner, a quartermaster, repair vendor, and an innkeeper here.

Before tackling any daily quests, you need to select your quest set for the day. You can choose between the PvE quests with PvE rewards (slightly slower to complete) or the PvP quests with PvP rewards (slightly faster to complete).

The PvE quests involve doing a set of four quests in three areas, and then a final quest to kill an elite. While questing in the Ihgaluk Crag, you are transformed into a Saurok, allowing you to run quickly, jump higher, travel without being attacked, and take almost no fall damage. This disguise is dropped whenever you are in combat.

The PvP quests can be done without engaging in combat with any other players, killing guards at the other faction's base instead. If you are on a PvE realm, be aware that taking any of the PvP quests will flag you for PvP while they remain in your logs.

If you really need more rep from them, you are able to apply your bonus reputation from the first Scenario and Heroic Dungeon of the day towards the faction as well, earning an extra 750 reputation from the dungeon and 325 from the scenario.

We are separating out Ancestral Guidance into a damage conversion number and a healing conversion number in order to allow for better tuning and to ultimately make the talent more attractive to Resto. I am guessing at the numbers right now, but imagine it says something like: "When you deal direct damage, 40% is copied as healing. When you deal direct healing, 60% is copied as healing."

We are changing the way Lava Burst interacts with Flame Shock. Currently, Flame Shock is required for Lava Burst to crit. This is cool rotationally but creates problems where Flame Shock dispels or swapping targets is a massive nerf to Elemental, dropping their 2.5 multiplier on Lava Burst to a 1.0. We are going to nerf Lava Burst damage, cause it to always crit (like Chaos Bolt), and then cause it to do say 50% more damage to targets afflicted by Flame Shock. The net result should be that LB + FS is still the best DPS, but failing to do so will be a 1.5 to 1.0 drop instead of a 2.5 to 1.0 drop.

Elemental's PvE damage will still be lower than we want after this change, but we want to bring up the damage of Lightning Bolt and other sources of damage together; we need to buff more than just Lava Burst to preserve the rotation... and avoid a lot of Lava Burst PvP videos.

We are going to try the suggestion where Overpower lowers the Mortal Strike cooldown by 0.5 sec. This is to avoid any conflict with the 1.0 sec GCD of Overpower causing niggling 0.5 sec holes in the rotation. See how it feels. This will be an Arms DPS increase that we're not sure they need after the Deep Wounds buff, but I'll report back if we take additional steps.

Our changes to Arcane proved very generous and Arcane has been an outlier on our DPS tests. We are going to reduce the damage from +50% per charge to +35% per charge and on mana from +150% per charge to +100% per charge.

If your post was deleted it was probably because it was A) whining, or B) doing a +1 on another post.

This is a very long thread. If it's going to remain readable (particularly if you want us to read it), everyone is going to have to do their part.

Raid Testing Schedule - February 12

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

On Tuesday, February 12, we will be testing more raid encounters in the Throne of Thunder.

Each encounter should be available at approximately the listed times below for all Public Test Realms.

As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a beta environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session, change the boss being tested, or cancel a test entirely, due to bugs, server hardware issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information, and thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback.

Pinnacle of Storms LFR Adjustments

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Note that we are continuing to make difficulty adjustments to all parts of LFR, to both the bosses and non-boss enemies.

In general, we start out with just an across-the-board reduction to health and damage compared to Normal mode, and then rely on feedback (and our own experiences -- many of you have probably had encounter devs in your LFR raids over the course of the past days!) to make more fundamental adjustments to mechanics that are proving particularly problematic.

One of our goals is for mechanics to generally feel a bit more meaningful than they do in 5.0/5.1 LFR -- you should have to do the fight "correctly" in order to win, at least without several stacks of Determination. However, if a single misstep (or malicious act) can wipe the raid, that's never going to be a fun experience.

LFR testing and iteration will continue until we're satisfied with the final difficulty. Thanks again for testing and for your feedback!

Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Patch 5.2 Too Soon?There are 16 bosses you have to clear on normal and then heroic, recruiting is hard enough since you changed your recruitment forums years back to be a giant clusterf* and to top it off, HOLIDAYS that maybe didn't matter when we were younger but now that we're not - we can't skip em anymore.
Certainly depending on how much time you can play, as well as other types of content (such as holiday events as you mention), your mileage may vary on how far into the expansion you are. It's definitely a balancing act between not enough content and too much, and it's not going to be the same player to player to player.

Re: Recruitment, you may want to try using the in-game /guildfinder tool, as well as your realm forum. The Raid and Guild Leadership forum is also a good place to seek advice on recruitment, and I'm sure some others here may also have recommendations on how to best focus your recruitment efforts.

I'm pretty irate atm and just venting but I wish you'd give us more than TWO WEEKS notice sometimes. TWO WEEKS??? Used to give us a month or two. Thanks for nothing.
I'm not aware of ever providing a month or two, we generally don't know a patch release date until a couple weeks at most before it's released. The estimate for the end of this month is still just an estimate, and could very well move.

Patch releases are dependent on many factors, not the least of which is testing and bug fixing. When we can we like to be able to give a couple weeks heads up so you can plan, and specifically prepare for currency down-conversions, as well as PvP season changes when applicable. In the past we've become a little shy about providing a heads up because if and when dates slip there's been a strong negative reaction. I think we're at a place though where the majority of people understand release dates can and do slip, and are at least appreciative of being informed.

I'm actually enjoying WoW now as opposed to 'classic'Answer can be found in the vid I posted above, game is hardly any time consuming now.
It really depends on which activity are you doing. Sure, if you only do dailies, scenarios, etc, it doesn't take much time. If you want to cap your valor points, you'll have to put some time into the game, though.

If you're chasing Heroic raid kills, you'll have to devote time as well. That's the beauty of the game these days, you can devote as much time as you want (and your reward will probably be comparable to how much time you've spent).

It doesn't matter if you don't get to see an end boss, it tells you hey I need to put some effort into this game if I want to do it, and before I get to see the end boss I have to experience the other fights as well.
For some it does. It was kinda weird for some people to see Illidan on the cinematic in TBC and never get to see him while he was current content because of .

If you don't have enough time well that is a different thing, but allow people that have or find time and put effort to feel awarded for it, don't just let everyone who can press Join LFR see and defeat the boss.
People that have time (and the will) can defeat Heroic bosses and get rewarded much more than someone seeing the content through LFR. And from time to time there're bosses that are exclusive to Heroic raiders (Algalon, Sinestra, and now Ra-den when 5.2 is released).

That's what in my opinion new WoW will never have and why old way of raiding will always be better than the current one, it simply does not feel rewarding enough for people that want to put effort and this has absolutely nothing to do with nostalgia because it's a fact, whoever raided whoever spent hours grinding/gearing after finishing what they started (eg Illidan) they could say I feel proud of myself and get a sense of accomplishment something people today will NEVER feel.
It's your opinion, so you can't make it a fact. I feel as proud of my Arthas kill as I do of my TBC/Wrath/MoP kills. It's just up to you to how much importance you wish to give to those events.

For me Arthas ranks higher than the others. Why? Because I've liked the Lich King character for a really long time and I feel his story (Arthas) was interesting to me.

Anyone saying FOR A FACT that any stage of this game was the best, is a person unable to grasp the simple concept of "subjectivity". What one considers the peak of existence for this game, others didn't even bother coming back to beyond reaching max level.
True. As much as I love those evenings in BRD with my friends, I wouldn't have the time for it today. Time changes. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Reputation / QuestingGC, are't quest drop chance supposed to increase w/ each mob kill & no drop, or am I imagining that pre-WOTLK patch?
They do for the most part. Some quest mechanics (use an item on a target maybe) are too complex to use that system. (Source)

Im a HM raider with just enough time to do what I love, kill bosses. I can't do dailies every day, why do you hate me?
We're trying to let you play at your own pace. It's just not feasible to force everyone to play at your pace because it varies. (Source)
You can kill bosses. Someone who invests more time might earn loot faster from charms. Why is that unfair? (Source)

Agree with Sham. Usually what frustrates me about dailies is the other players, not the quests themselves.
Agree. We want a system where it's good to see someone else of your faction, not competition for spawns or kills. (Source)

You keep saying that. Believe or not, you have to power to fix it. I'm guessing will be part of "big new feature"
We do have the power to fix it, and will, but it's not a quick fix. Shared credit just makes everything too fast and easy. (Source)

Removal of group quests makes questing completely singleplayer and not mmo
There is more outdoor group content in 5.2. Let us know how it feels. (Source)

Youdon't want "Finish in one week"? I just finished Klaxxi Reputation in one day. farming Amber Shards
Fortunately, that's not something a lot of players feel is a good use of their time. If it worked for you, great. (Source)

WorldYes, game needs a "world"as you said. Make a 10 min CD for flying mounts. Sit back and enjoy how the game improves 5x.
This is a good example of the kind of thing with potential long term benefits and a lot of short term "world is ending." (Source)

The way to FIX the AH is like GW2 does it, one AH to rule them all, no server based AH.
It's hard to corner the market or otherwise stand out when you are competing with everyone though. Might ruin the AH for many? (Source)

CRZ weakened realm community and made it pointless. If I wanted to see ppl from Y realm I'd be on Y realm not X.
The reality for many realms is you would see nobody. WoW isn't good as a single player game. (Source)

How come you haven't addressed low population realms or imbalanced ones in years, despite promising to, then?
I am very careful to never promise anything. This is why. That said, we are always talking solutions. (Source)

Not a fan of Xrealm AH, but it's ok for farmers to go from a high pop server to farm a low pop (competition). Economics much?
It's not a global economics issue. It's fun for players to e.g. corner the market, which is hard when the market is too big. (Source)

What is your opinion on what Vaneras said about the evolution of communities in WoW? forum/topic/6493569798?page=3#43
I think there is no substitute for how the game felt when everything was so new. Does anything in life stay the same after 8 years? (Source)

wanting us out in the world, is different than forcing us out there. Wanting to see content is different than having to.
One maxim of MMO design is players nearly always choose the fastest route to a reward. I referred to this as Mechanar syndrome. (Source)
Someone challenged me on that - said players farmed Mech because it was our crowning achievement in dungeon design. Sure buddy. (Source)

WoW On Sale - Prepare for the Thunder King!

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

The Thunder King’s return looms on the horizon, and to prepare for the storm, Blizzard has just slashed prices on all World of Warcraft games by 50% - 70%. Now is the time to recruit your friends to begin their epic quest in Azeroth. But hurry—this deal ends February 25 at 11:59 p.m. PST.

The way to FIX the AH is like GW2 does it, one AH to rule them all, no server based AH.
It's hard to corner the market or otherwise stand out when you are competing with everyone though. Might ruin the AH for many?

Selling trade mats would be a bitch and a half for anyone without a bot. It's already a pain to babysit and turn over trade mat auctions now, I don't need a thousand more people undercutting me.

Anyway, I do hope that blizzard notices they failed to include a strength DPS item for the new rep...

"Do not look down, my friend. Even in the darkest of times, there is always hope... Hope for a better day, hope for a new dawn... Or just hope for a good breakfast. You start small, then see what you can get." ~ Covetous Shen

It wouldn't be a minority .. it would be anybody who sells things on the AH. The prices on things would be at an all-time low; no one would make any money from the AH. No longer would you have 20 stacks of one herb on the AH from different sellers on your Realm. Now? You would 400+ stacks of one herb .. all competing for top billing. Everything on the AH would be selling for 1g a stack if AH was world-wide. Supply and demand wouldn't match up. Great for buyers .. until, you know .. everyone decides farming ore for 10 hours isn't worth the 30g they would make.

Economics on WoW is what we call a "perfect competition". This means, in a nutshell, all items are homogeneous (one stack of herbs is always the same as another), transaction fees are nonexistent (on the AH there are transaction fees that are the same for every character, for the same item, negating that factor), and infinite sellers (anyone can essentially farm; it isn't something restrictive like, let's say, me farming diamonds irl). Because WoW is a perfect competition, it becomes nearly impossible to gain anything from having such a largely populated AH.

I made this comment a while back, but I believe this acts as a catch up mechanism to help people into 5.0 raids or to hopefully fill up some missing gear slots to get enough ilevel to enter 5.2. There is also a bunch of 502 gear (IIRC) from the raid faction starting off with some gear just for being neutral with them, but that gear needs VP to buy.

Maybe I missed it, but what do you spend valor points on in 5.2? the gear from dailies is useless (and doesn't even cost valor) so there is zero point in doing them which is kind of disappointing actually since I was looking forward to having something to do rather then just logging in once a week

Maybe I missed it, but what do you spend valor points on in 5.2? the gear from dailies is useless (and doesn't even cost valor) so there is zero point in doing them which is kind of disappointing actually since I was looking forward to having something to do rather then just logging in once a week